Cherish Your Failures

Cherish Your Failures

Years ago, I attended a meeting held by The Forum Group. Their pitch was directed at those dissatisfied with their lives. For $600, you were promised a course that would turn your life around. The facilitator, uncannily dressed like a Mormon, in a smart black suit and...

Pudong

Pudong

“Where are we?” Laura asked. “I don’t know,” I answered in bewilderment. “But you booked the trip, remember? Our hotel was supposed to be overlooking the Bund and the Oriental Pearl Tower.” “Well, I did ask for a hotel in Pudong in that area. Our travel agent must...

The Art of Passing an Interview

The Art of Passing an Interview

Calgary was booming. Collins Barrow, Accountants were desperately short of team leaders. Being of British heritage, the firm decided to recruit from England. They handed the task over to Pat Cashion, their youngest partner. He was in his late twenties, when the...

Touring GIB

Touring GIB

The Rock Hotel balanced itself precariously on its perch halfway up a hill, on Europa Road, as narrow as an alleyway. Its squat, sparkling-white structure sprawled across the hillside exuding an image of the white cliffs of Dover—appropriate, being Great Britain’s...

2 Essential Lessons in Life

2 Essential Lessons in Life

The 2 essential lessons I’ve learned in life (and please don’t tell my wife) are: You cannot be an accountant if you can’t add. The difficulty of getting fired. On a cold, rainy January morning I entered the portal of Hale and Company, Chartered Accountants of...

Walking the Mezquita

Walking the Mezquita

As my family negotiated the narrow, winding street, well before reaching our destination, we could hear the tumult ahead. It led us to a square overwhelmed with sightseers. This could have been any tourist trap in Europe. We battled through a surging tide of humanity...

Pride, Prejudice, and the Efficacy of Brown Humour

Pride, Prejudice, and the Efficacy of Brown Humour

I quickly learned the art of self-deprecatory humour in my pre-teens. Thrown into an all-white, uneducated, low-income housing estate outside London, I was the only coloured inhabitant. Love playing football (soccer), I would trawl the streets on my bike searching for...

Welcome Home

Welcome Home

When I was born, Dar-es-Salaam (Arabic for Haven of Peace) was an idyllic harbour on the coast of East Africa. After an absence of forty years, only a chance sojourn in Dubai and an advert in the Gulf News offering a three-day excursion enticed me to return home. I...

Made in Heaven

Made in Heaven

“Hon, some good news,” Laura exclaimed one day while we were dating. “All my brothers and sisters are returning to the Philippines this Christmas. If I go, what will you do?” “If they’re all coming, why can’t we go and get married there at the same time?” She started...

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